Takeshi let out a deep sigh as he bobbed his head in an utterly displeased gesture.

“It seems as though we were captured back at the diner, that’s all that there is to know, it all happened so fast, so I can understand it still being a blur,” Takeshi muttered in response to Yilana’s inquiry.

“As for where we are…. I can’t be entirely sure, I’m blindfolded… but from what I collect, we are being hauled in some sort of military vehicle, no doubt being escorted by an entourage of military units,” Takeshi spoke in a somber tone.

Takeshi then leaned forward towards Yilana.

“All I know for sure is that we are about forty minutes from being loaded onto a jet and likely taken to some laboratory to be picked at…” Takeshi whispered to Yilana.

"Stronger?" Stronger is always better, she thought to herself. Not to mention allies or that he knows Dr. Takeshi. Hey he might even know Dr. Boggs. Wouldn't that be a treat. Then I could get started on my true objective. "Well stronger is nice, but I think what with the accident and all I might need a couple hours to calm down so I can make a rational decision." He nodded and started to turn away. Realizing she had no way to get out of there she quickly added. "Could you maybe help me with the car?" He grinned and called back his bots. They easily moved the car back onto the road for her, even facing the right direction. He then had one of them produce a slip of paper with a phone number on it so she could contact him later.

She shook her head at his as he went screaming off in his pod. She was absolutely sure that it was screams of delight even though he was flying at neck-breaking speeds. She got in te car and felt the seat vibrating. What the? Reaching under, she pulled out her misplaced phone. She ignored the call, tossing the phone back into the passanger seat and headed on to Rapid.

Dr. Weird had just bid Tang Le good bye, he knew he would be hearing from her soon. She just had that look about her that reminded her of him. She wanted something, so did he and they could help each other out.

As he rocketed of in the direction of home he checked the military radio frequencies, he remembered something about another super causing trouble elsewhere. When he turned it on the smile and that good feeling was having vanished.

“We have two supers in route to Ellsworth and another on its way, be advised they are highly dangers. The two are believed to be acquaintances of Dr. Weird.” As the commutations officer finished his report with the route and E.T.A. plus the amount of guards accompanying them.

“DAAMM IIIIT!!!” Dr. Weird shouted in rage, he slammed on the brakes in his pod. Almost dislocating the joints of the droids, but they were made tougher than that. “Crap, now I have to go and get them.” Dr. Weird new the two were Yilana and Twisted Fate but the third one was a mystery to him. He started thinking it could be a bonus, a new ally for him. He punched in the coordinates for the air force base and pulled out a commutations radio from his coat, he saw that he missed a call from Steve earlier but he didn’t care.

He switched it on, “STEVE, LISTEN UP!”

“Yes Doctor what do you need?”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW?”

“Ike has requested some clean testing subjects and their files for training purposes.”

“YOU CAN DO THAT LATER DAM IT; I NEED YOU TO SEND 23 SR3-88’S FULLY LOADED TO THE ELLSWORTH AIRFORCE BASE VIA TWO STAGE ROCKETS NOW!!!”

“Right away sir, they should arrive there in an estimated 20 minutes. Might I ask why we are attacking an army base?”

“YIN AND YANG WENT AND GOT CAUGHT AND ARE BEING SHIPPED OUT FROM THERE, NOW THE NEXT WORDS I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU IS THAT MY BACK IS THERE, OUT!” Dr. Weird stuffed the communicator back in his coat while grinding his teeth.

Rocketing off into the distance of Ellsworth, his Q.I.E. at full speed Dr. Weird was preparing to unleash hell upon those poor unsuspecting souls at the air force base.________________________________________________________________________________

Dark heard many distant noises, but each was to muffled to undertand. He was still under the effects of the drugs. He concentrated as best he could on the nearest to him.

"Helicopter is ready." A man said.

A woman countered "We can't move him. We only had time to remove the shrapnel from his body, he still needs alot of work!"

The man responded "Not up to me."

The woman demanded "By law a patient can't be removed! He is still a patient!"

Another man countered "Well we are above the law. Also a patient needs to be human. This thing isn't, so the law doesn't apply to him."

Dark opened his eyes, but could only see blurs, then used all his strength to say "I'll.... Kill... you... first..."

He counld see the blurs take a step back, the woman said "He's awake! How? We hit him with enough drugs to knock out a bull elephant!"

The last man said "I told you the numbers where off. Hit him with another 20 miligrams, then get him to the chopper. Those goonies at Ellsworth have some special things for planned for him. They want him there in 20 minutes."

The other man said "Won't be 10. Chopper is ready and Ellsworth is a real short flight."

Dark countered "I'll... make... it... painful." He felt the needle jab into his arm and he blacked out again.

It was an odd hallway. It appeared as though there were only five other rooms on this floor but judging on the size of his room there was no way that was all they could fit. Unless the other rooms were about four times larger than his own.

"Sociable bunch…" He murmured after realizing none of the doors were open.

Or perhaps they're all sleeping…

It was nine o clock after all.

Or maybe there isn't anyone else on this floor. Maybe I'm in some sort of broom cupboard turned bedroom and all the other rooms are important facilities…

He stopped and examined one of the doors.

That can't be right, can it? Jackson said something about other residents on this floor hadn't he?

It didn't really matter he decided as he pressed button number four in the elevator.

Yilana knew it wasn't a good idea to fake how the sleeping gas affected her. With her adaptation skills, she was immune to any sort of special fume. Holding her breath for too long to fake it to the soldiers gave her a massive headache. She groaned as she continued to hold her head in her hands.

She breathed heavily as Dr. Takeshi expressed his concern for both of our lives and she knew that it would all rely on her power to get them unbound. "Not on my watch. I'll help us get out of here. I have a plan."

She tightened her eyes shut beneath the coarse blindfold gently rubbing against her wrinkled eyelids from concentration. She knew she had to try her Fire Form and burn her bounds and blindfold away to help Dr. Takeshi.

Yilana could feel the heat rush throughout her whole body as it began to engulf itself in flames. Right after her blindfold deteriorated, she saw a figure stomp out of the front of the truck with a heavy looking object.

"Well looky here. A freak." the soldier said with a sly smile. He aimed, what Yilana could now recognize as a fire extinguisher at her.

Yilana snarled at how demeaning the soldier was to her. "You will know your place, you fucking useless son of a bitch!" As she took a step forward she felt the handcuffs around her ankles weaken and break, causing her to trip a bit before running up to him with blind rage.

"Good girl," he said with a maniacal laugh, as he sprayed out the white foamy substance at Yilana, causing her to scream as she could feel it cool down her body, putting her fire form to an end.

"You may have a different special power than any other regular human, but you aren't very smart, are you?" the soldier said before he kicked her in the stomach, making her cringe in pain as her back hit the back wall of the truck.

He walked quickly up to her and put his hand around her neck and spat, "You're lucky you're covered in this disgusting shit. Or else there would have been an opportunity I would NOT have missed." He smiled and walked back to the hatch and closed the door shut before Yilana could react.

Yilana stood there in shock and could feel the tears burn against her cheeks as they trailed down and dripped upon the floor along with the white foam from the extinguisher. The rage within her was unbearable and without her knowledge, her eyes were turning into a bright red-orange color. She stomped towards the fire extinguisher on the floor, breathing heavily in rage. She began to scream in anger as loud as she could, trying to free herself of the handcuffs bounding her wrists. She wanted to throw that extinguisher at the door so bad. She wanted that soldier to pay for what he said and did and what he wanted to do to her.

As the extinguisher just sat there and her wrists still bound, all she could feel was weak and useless. She knelt on the hard metal surface below and continued to breathe heavily, feeling her anger slowly evolve into sadness. She hung her head down low and began to whimper, forgetting all about Dr. Takeshi's presence and the plan for their escape.

Complete infuriation overtook Takeshi when he heard the fray that had gone on between Yilana and the soldier, yet, being bound and blindfolded rendered him completely useless to give his partner in crime any help. Takeshi took a brief moment to think about their options, factoring in information he has gathered in the short time span he has been conscious…

After some time Steve returned with young teen street punk named Kyle. He was binded and gagged for some reason, it must of been for the fact that he was attempting to yell profanities through the gag.

"Well its about time..... so Kyle...," Ike began to think of some tortures.

Dr. Weird had just arrived at Ellsworth AFB and with the controls in his pod began to incept and relay false satellite signals to cover his presents and the arrival of the 23 SR3-88’s which would be arriving very shortly.

“Dam it,” Dr. Weird hissed. “They're not here yet, I guess this gives the opportunity to prepare.” He then began procedures to isolate the base from calling in backup. Ellsworth was going to suffer a complete black out, no power, no help, and no chance of survival.

In minutes Dr. Weird’s backup had arrived, the rockets had come down a distance away from the base itself as to not alert any attention to the soldiers on the perimeter. These SR3-88’s had a slightly different appearance that the others up till now. With a black paint job these ones were more suited for evading enemy detection, and their fire power had also been improved. Instead of the Taser Shockwave it has been replaced with 4 anti-tank missiles.

“Good, good, now all we have to do is wait for the honored guests to arrive in about 20 minutes.” Dr. Weird sat there in his pod glaring at the base; the usual smirk that he wore had been replaced with a grimace.

The SR3-88’s began to take up positions around Dr. Weird, there was a small hum in air from all the droids movement.

“No you five bring up the rear the rest of you spread out.” Without even flinching he gave them their position. “Crap how this is why I gave up driving, it takes to dam long to get anywhere.”________________________________________________________________________________

Epoch had been struggling to sleep, though his eyes began to weigh on him. Nine was a few hours early, but the exhaustion of the day had been a heavy weight. As he really started drifting, he heard a light rapping on his bedroom door. Who the hell wants me now, he thought as he forced himself to sit up.

"Just a minute," Epoch grumbled, loud enough, he knew, to be heard on the opposing side of his door. Not wanting to clothe himself again, Epoch went to his closet and grabbed a nice pale green robe that he seldom wore. The left breast was laden with a finely embroidered NSS logo. The robe was a relaxing garment that the station had thrown into everyone's closet, trying to remind students to relax. It was clean but bore the subtle odor of being in the closet longer than any other of his articles.

Dragging his feet like a stubborn mule, Darren shuffled to the door, rubbing his eyes, preparing for the dim, sterile light, of the NSS' hallways. He should have thought to ask for the name of whomever was behind the door. However, the yearning for sleep kept him from embracing the notion; he just wanted to shoo away the visitor. Grasping the knob, he opened the door partially and stuck his head out.

Like diving into a foul odor, Epoch's face twisted and his eyes dilated as he struggled to focus on Akvo. Had he even guessed it was Akvo, Darren probably would have ignored the guest.

Akvo, resolute, offered his hand. "I meant what I said. I intend on being a member of this team. I've taken a new name and I'm even going to wear the standard costume. I'm also sorry for the way I spoke to you earlier. Sometimes it's easier to get angry than to admit that you're wrong."

Dark lay still very much drugged. Only the sound of the helicopter rotor blades cutting through the air kept him in the very questionable state of consciousness he had. He felt a very geat thump against his back. He tried to open his eyes but they refused being far to intoxicated with the drugs. He could hear people talking but against the helicopter. He could feel he was being moved and the rotor noise began to fade, replaced with the squeaking of wheels rolling.

A voice said in his ear "Welcome to Hell."

He tried to say "You're... Second" but he could only guess if he actually said, or made any noise at all.

"Well, you have been working on the wrong side, it makes it pretty easy for us to be angry with you. You put innocent people in harms way. But, I appreciate the apology for the argument we shared earlier. I still don't look too forward to working with you. You'll have to shape up."

"Sure, I've been working on the wrong side, but what about your side?" Akvo said, attempting to keep his anger from flaring up. "Your compassion flew out the window, and you're not bothering to meet me halfway here."

He thought about turning and leaving but felt compelled to stay.

"Look, you proposed the idea, now I'm doing my level best to meet your proposal. You on the other hand are on top of this mighty hill calling down to me, telling me to work my ass off to get to you." Akvo said to the door's siding.

He looked at Epoch, "I'm climbing up the mountain to get to you. Instead of kicking rocks down to me, perhaps you could toss down a god damn rope if you're not going to come down to help me."

Epoch was disgruntled, and perhaps the weight of the day had been wearing him thin. He couldn't get past being sour with Akvo, but he knew that President Jackson had put a lot of faith in the young man.

"I'd throw you a rope, but I think I'm just exhausted today," Epoch started, looking down to the floor, "Let's start tomorrow, and we can build some trust in the field and in training. I'll do what I can to get off my high horse, but it's tough because I am passionate about this job. I think if we follow through for one another and the NSS, maybe we can put this argument behind us. I think right now I just need to sleep."

Skylar tries to stay awake because he fears if he does not, more soldiers will come and catch him off guard. He sits in the far back of the tunnel against a metal grate meant to block humans from going deeper in. His knees pressed tight to his chest, his breathing soft so not to cause an echo. He thinks only to himself, "Why did this happen to me?" His eyelids become heavy as his head bobs up and down. His arms wrap around his knees in order to keep warm. His body slowly vibrates in order to produce heat as well. Skylar drifts off into sleep until something disturbs him. ---------------------------------------------------------Raging Roar (Superior) – (3/30)Seismic Clap (Superior) – (2/30)Earthquake (Novice) – (4/10)

"That's fair. I think my feet just carried me here because I'm not willing to accept this rift. I could have handled things a lot better, from start to finish. Sorry for waking you." Akvo sighed and made his way to the elevator at the end of the hall.

Epoch nodded and said, "It's all right," as he watched Akvo walk away. This day was never going to end, it felt. Epoch closed the door to the dimly lit hallway and removed his robe. He hung it, once again, in the closet, not expecting to wear it anytime soon.

He crawled back into bed and rolled onto his right side, digging half of his face into his pillow, and closed his eyes.